Green Party speaks on Arundel Bypass

10th February 2015

'economically questionable as well as environmentally reckless'

The Coalition government’s announcement of road building plans is deplored by the Green Party, the only party committed to delivering a transport revolution. More must be done to reduce petrol and diesel use and make walking and cycling safer, and more roads are not the answer to our transport crisis.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

“The Prime Minister’s obsession with major new road schemes is economically questionable as well as environmentally reckless.”

“Road building simply does not reduce congestion. For decades, even the Government’s own studies have been showing this. Road building encourages more traffic, worsens air pollution, and causes severe loss and harm to our precious countryside. As new roads simply clog up, the economic arguments evaporate – especially when compared to the alternatives.”

"The more we learn about the damaging impact of diesel pollution and physical inactivity on our health, the more urgent the need for this change in direction and priorities becomes. The money offered for to encourage cycling is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions being spent every year on roads while walking does not even get a mention. If the government is serious about creating jobs and supporting a sustainable economy they should be seizing the huge opportunities available from investing in new, less carbon-intensive transport technologies and looking to reduce our need to travel by car."

Chichester and Bognor Green Party, Arundel’s local party, are against the building of a new bypass on the A27 at Arundel. We do not want to see countryside and woodland give way to concrete; nor do wish to see a community devastated at Binsted and Walberton. We believe that economic arguments in favour of a new road are largely mythical as no proof has yet been produced to support them; in spite of local press and official bias, it is clear that many local people are not in favour of the bypass proposals. We propose that solutions to traffic congestion should be creatively worked out in consultation with the community and the money allocated for the road should be used for such solutions.

Isabel Thurston, standing for the Green Party in Arundel and South Downs, said

“I am passionately against this undemocratic proposal; it is clear that the new road options are being put forward without proper consideration of alternatives. I believe that if a new road is built, as the traffic roars past, people will look back and bitterly regret the day they let this happen. Even more so when, in ten years’ from now the new road will be just as congested.”

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